Casebook Review:

A brilliantly written specialist book targeted towards the seasoned and serious Ripperologist. Robert McLaughlin pulls a major coup by discovering an obscure book written by a French medical student named André Lamoureux in 1894 entitled De l'Éventration au point-de-vue medico-legal - inside was published a single photograph of Mary Jane Kelly. This book preceeds Lacassagne's Vacher l'Eventreur by five years and must now be considered the earliest publication ever to print a photo of a Ripper victim.

This discovery propels McLaughlin to ask several pertinent questions related to the victim photographs. Who was the photographer? How many photographs were taken? Who owned copies, and why were they first published in France? Each question is skilfully examined, and McLaughlin succeeds in masterfully bringing to life such characters as Joseph Martin, André Lamoureux, Alexandre Lacassagne and Arthur MacDonald.

McLaughlin also manages another first - his is the first book ever to publish every known victim photograph - Tabram, Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes, Kelly, Mackenzie and Coles. Multiple versions of the Eddowes and Kelly photographs are provided as well to distinguish subtle differences between the versions well known to modern readers and those early photographs published in 19th century France.

Altogether a brilliant series of essays, finely produced and generously illustrated. Well recommended to serious students of the case.

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